


To the Sea

by MassiveSpaceWren



Category: Iron Man (Comic), Marvel Noir, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen or Pre-Slash, Iron Man Noir - Freeform, M/M, Merman Bucky, Pre-Slash, mentions of torture, merman au, or can be read as that so far, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 07:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12053766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MassiveSpaceWren/pseuds/MassiveSpaceWren
Summary: Sirens. Merpeople. Tony could barely imagine what this would mean, if all the stories were true.Tony breaks into a Nazi lair while hunting for an artifact and discovers more than he would have thought possible.





	To the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blue_pointer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_pointer/gifts).



> A short fic for the Key exchange we did on the Winteriron Discord server :)
> 
> A huge thank you for [Orbingarrow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orbingarrow/pseuds/orbingarrow), for betaing!
> 
> My prompt was "Ocean".

Tony snuck through the doorway and pressed himself to the wall. Behind him, the voices of the Nazi guards on their rounds kept getting quieter, their footsteps already too far away to be heard. Tony closed his eyes and allowed himself a deep breath. Then he opened them again to take a look around the room he was in.

The chamber was big for a basement, but then, he sometimes thought the Nazis could build lairs with 300% more dark cellars. The equipment and notes scattered around the room made it clear that he had found what he had been looking for: Their lab.

A quick glance gave him enough of an overview. A shelf with books, several big metal tanks with smaller viewing windows and dark water swirling inside, another shelf, this one stacked with labeled containers, and a table that, to Tony's horror, seemed to be a table for autopsies. Ignoring his revulsion, he turned towards the containers and boxes. If he couldn't see his prize sitting around openly, they'd probably stored it away.

Tony went rummaging through some cases, grabbing a few ancient coins here and a few samples of materials there, but then closed them again and put them back. The less they knew about what he took, the better.

Then, finally, he found what he had been looking for.

The amulet was small compared to other artifacts he’d spent the last years hunting. It was barely more than a few beads on a string. Tony was sure it was the right one, though. The delicate corals, the smaller pearls, and the slightly bigger pearl set into a piece of current-formed stone. This was the "Siren's Song", as rumors had called it.

Tony wrapped it up into leather and stored it in his bag. He tried to leave the shelf looking like it was untouched, every container as it had been before. His gaze swept the room again. With a few quick steps, Tony was at the autopsy table. Maybe the Nazis had left some more information for him to use. He leafed through notes and booklets, throwing hurried glances at the entrance to make sure no one had found him yet.

A startled gasp left his mouth. Sirens. Merpeople. The Nazis hadn't just found the amulet, they'd apparently actually found a Mermaid, although no one seemed sure what exactly to call it, as none of the myths quite fit the creature. Tony couldn't stop reading. This was amazing. He could barely imagine what this would mean, if all the stories were true.

Sea creatures, with fishtails and roughly humanoid torsos. They weren't capable of speaking human language, but able to feel pain and emotions like fear and despair. Tony shuddered at the thought of how the scientists had found out _that_ in particular. The creatures were said to be smart enough to open simple hatches, and some notes warned of their sharp fangs.

Tony swallowed thickly when the next few pages were detailed sketches of an arm with fins and webbing between the fingers, severed but otherwise intact, and then cut apart layer by layer. His hand clenched at the table while he was breathing heavily and trying to keep it together.

In a split second decision, he ripped out a few key pages and hid them under his clothes. Who knew what evil they would be up to after what they had done already? These creatures felt pain, had emotions, and they had tortured and killed them.

A splashing sound made him turn sharply and draw his gun. For a few heartbeats which felt like an eternity, he listened for another sound, while his eyes flicked frantically across the room again.

Silence.

He shook himself from his shock and holstered the gun. Throwing one last look around the empty room, he snuck out the door again. He'd just have to leave this base and take his find home.

 

~~~

 

Tony felt hysterical laughter well up inside him when they dragged him back into the very same room not half an hour later. He'd die here if he couldn't escape soon. Very soon. There was no way they'd wait long to kill him.

One of the guards who had caught him had taken his bag, another his gun. There were six of them, all armed, too many to just fight off. One of them opened the iron manacles bolted to the wall, which let his tiny hope that they might not secure him right wither and die. The moment to fight was now, and if he wound up dead, he'd at least have tried. Maybe he'd be able to destroy some of their research before they gunned him down.

Tony jumped into action, throwing his head back to crash into the nose of the goon gripping his hands behind him. He jumped forward to grab for the next man's hand and tilt the gun away from his face as it went off, hitting the glass of the tank and resulting in a small crack. Before Tony could make another move, a fist slammed into his jaw, sending him stumbling down to the ground.

"So, you want to die right now instead of later. We can do that," one of them sneered and raised his gun. Tony froze, looking up into the barrel.

The room exploded into chaos when the glass of the tank broke, sending shards flying as a jet of water slammed into one of the guards, pushing him to his knees. The goons barely had time to stumble back before a monster jumped from the tank, taking down two of the men with its weight. Their screams turned to silence in a spray of blood as it sank its fangs into one man's throat and its claws into the other's. The creature's fishtail darted upwards, hitting one of the guards, and the sickening crack of his neck could only mean one thing. He fell to the ground and stopped moving.

The man still standing hesitated at the creature's piercing snarl, high pitched and terrible. A few moments later, the Siren had also knocked him down and sunk its teeth into his neck.

Tony stared, frozen in shock, as the creature turned to look at him after sinking its claws into the last guard. Its long powerful fishtail twitched slightly, but its almost human-like torso was still and calculating. There were fins starting on its back, running down towards its tail. Its face looked almost human and beautiful from what was visible under its long dark hair, but the blood dripping from its fanged mouth made it impossible to forget what just had happened. The creature was still lying on one of the bodies, their blood tinting the water red. Sharp grey eyes seemed to seize Tony up, staring and unblinking.

Tony's eyes landed on the creature's left arm, or where it was supposed to be. Its appendage ended shortly under the shoulder and the wound was sewn shut. Which was a decidedly human practice.

His knees went out under him and he sank down to the floor. He stared, uncaring that his pants got soaked with blood and water.

This... this wasn't just any monstrous sea creature. This was the same one they had experimented on. Cut off its arm. The same one that was capable of feeling pain, of showing emotions. It, _he_ deserved to be free again.

The merman just stared at him, blood still dripping from his mouth.

Slowly, Tony got up on his knees and tried to make his way towards the siren. He kept watching Tony's every move. Raising his hands to show they were empty, Tony finally came to sit near the creature.

He swallowed heavily and reached out slowly to touch the merman carefully, but the siren bared his teeth and let out a warning snarl, half growl and half a screech like before. Tony snatched his hand back and held them open in surrender.

"It's okay, it's fine, I'm not gonna hurt you," he started babbling quietly. Maybe the tone was soothing enough for the merman to understand. "It's gonna be fine, we'll get out of here, I'm not your enemy."

The siren cocked his head curiously. He shuffled into a position Tony would have described as sitting and started to extend his arm towards Tony.

"Aw, shit, please don't kill me," he mumbled, before taking a calming breath and trying to stay still to not provoke the creature.

The merman carefully ran a hand down Tony's shoulder before tugging at his shirt collar experimentally. The hand then wandered up to poke at Tony's cheek. The fingertips were still wet, leaving a red tinted trail on his clothing. But in contrast to the merman's brutality towards the guards, his fingers only softly stroked over Tony's skin.

Telegraphing his movement, Tony brought his own hand up to touch the merman's and ran his hand up the siren's arm to his shoulder. The creature's skin was wet but not slimy, and Tony could feel the fine texture.

Suddenly, the siren flinched back and turned towards the doorway. 

Tony froze. He listened for a few seconds, but couldn't hear anything. Then he got up to search for his bag and a few weapons. He slung the satchel over his shoulder after shoving in more of the Nazis’ notes, and threw the rest of the notes into the mix of blood and water on the floor. "Hopefully they won't be able to save those from the water damage," Tony mumbled while checking the gun he had found.

When he looked up, the merman was crawling towards the exit. It should have looked pathetic, with only one arm to push him upwards and him clearly not made for moving over land quickly, but the powerful movements of his tail made it clear he could crush whoever was stupid enough to come too close.

"Okay, that's not gonna work." Tony shoved the gun into his holster. Then he returned the merman's stare. "We obviously both want to get out of here. So far, you probably don't want to immediately kill me. So let's work together."

The creature stared at him.

How dumb this was, talking to a siren. Maybe he could draw up a picture or something. He wasn't sure if he could convey an escape plan through just gestures-

The merman nodded.

Tony did a double take. "What," Tony started flatly. The merman gestured towards himself, then to Tony, and then to the exit. Tony ran a hand down his face and stared incredulously. "You can understand me?"

The merman cocked his head and gestured, half shrug half something else.

"Okay," Tony started, drawing out the vowels. "You can at least understand _some_ of what I'm saying."

The merman nodded again and started gesturing towards the exit once more.

"Okay." Tony drew in a sharp breath and hurried through the room, shoving another gun into his bag. "Let's do this. I know a way out, where we may be able to avoid the guards. If we can't get past all of them, we'll take them out. You've seen how a gun works, right? So... just don't freak out too much when the shooting starts. You should warn me if you can hear them approaching." He stepped closer to the merman. "Can I... pick you up?"

The merman hesitated, looking away for a moment. Tony crouched down next to him. "I'll be as careful as I can," he soothed, "We'll get out of here."

The merman returned his gaze and nodded minutely.

Tony strained to pick him up but with the merman's arm around his shoulders and his tail clinging to Tony, it was easy enough to stand and walk. He felt the merman shiver in his arms and Tony gripped him tighter, running a hand up and down the merman's back.

"I'll get you out of here," Tony promised. "I'll get you back to the ocean."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> If you have constructive criticism, I'm happy to learn :)
> 
> The whole thing was meant to be short, but I'm a little unhappy some ideas kind of just got mentioned but never came up again...
> 
> If you also want to talk about Tony and Bucky, you can [join us on Discord! :D](https://discord.gg/A32YB6Y)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [art for To the Sea](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12058872) by [araydre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/araydre/pseuds/araydre)




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